Tag: God Amun-Ra

I heard the call of myrrh from a lonely sky;
a tree of scented breath upon which the Gods ride,
sending out a divine cloud to bring me in;
a ba-soul of the Hidden One to soothe my wandering senses.

The myrrh tree fills my head with lofty sight,
with visions that spring from a well I thought buried;
but a cloud of intoxicating sky chased my eyes,
and He was the Lord of Winds pulling the earth in.

His Ram-Soul made a noise across the sky
like a trumpet blaring in the full light of day;
though it was night His flame caught my eyes and ears,
and with sky-clad lips He drew me to His sacred boughs.

Amun-Ra of myrrh and dust of gold,
concealed in plain sight where my senses find You;
by dawn Your sky-tree burns to scent the heavens,
and at nightfall enchants the earth with stellar fingers.

Eyes, lips, and hands doused in myrrh of the heights;
His skin seeks out every sense with its power,
and I am taken deep into waters of lapis-lazuli;
with perception as a boat I traverse His potent waters.

Tree above these waters I enter, make me a home;
within your boughs and branches hold a swallow,
who alights as this ba-soul of my keeping;
and let him drink that lapis water of sacred ground and vault.

Swallow of copper and gold, hawk of obsidian eye,
come down from Your branches to tell me the way;
for there is a road sweeping through the ordered stars,
being the Hidden One’s edict for my traveling soul.

Amun-Ra You have called me out of the earth
which held me like a sleeping stone;
with open mouth Your breath becomes my guide,
and You lead me to Your tree of starry myrrh in the sky.

I heard the call of the Gods from the eternal sky,
who bring the two regions together with stellar hands;
the Earth in His solitude, the Heavens in Her joy;
theirs is a union traveled by the ages of souls.

Let me be among those who travel the far reaches,
with breath of myrrh and wings of the morning swallow;
and may those Gods who summon the wind hear me
as I make my twilight cries across the wandering veil.

Beholding Your sacred tree on the evening horizon,
I step beneath branches that hold Ancestral souls;
these are mine in light or darkness,
the scent of generations my open mouth sends out.

Amun-Ra of myrrh and dust of stars,
revealed in hidden sight where my ba-soul finds You;
by dawn Your sky-tree burns to scent the heavens,
and at nightfall enchants the earth with stellar fingers.

Menu brought his gift to me in the skin of a pomegranate;
bestowed by the lips of sundown, its seeds spoke your lofty name.
This god of upraised arm delivered the sky into my hands;
a treasure that fills my grip as the river swells its banks.

You came at dusk to our sycamore of the sky, half-hidden by its branches;
“let only the moon see us” is what you said, as sky and bough were married.
What shone by the Moon-God was fruit of red beating in my hand;
the drum of your fingers spurred me on to find those heavenly heights.

Yours is a sanctuary hidden by the river, where pray my hands and knees;
Amun-Menu waits there for me with heaven and earth in hand.
His fist governs the holy river above which winks your navel;
I travel its sacred flood without leaving my earnest prayers.

Surely I have tasted the sky while keeping earth’s embrace;
a moonlight wine to warm my lips with vintage of your making.
Your field has a sun-heavy palm, though moon and stars come calling;
two golden dates swing low on my horizon where hungry eyes gaze high.

Shall I call you Amun in the shrine my breast keeps hidden?
The light you concealed warms my naked palm bereft of sacred flame.
Let me offer a hymn before you, stripped of pride’s pretenses;
with wine in my heart and gold on my lips I open the sky at your feet.

I give praise to Amun-Ra of golden horns and copper mirror;
whose full lips bring malachite rays to open earth’s horizons.
Sandalwood knows your secret names within the keep of heaven;
the earth becomes your scent of myrrh on banks of east and west.

I shed my cloak of royal linen to bend with tree and river;
acacia and flood who know their lord and give him what he favors.
What swells his heart is the boon of skin swaying on a breeze;
his eyes to drink the dip of thighs kissed by the dying sun.

What foretells the sky like earth, the mountains like horizon;
who foretells a god like a man, a husband like a lover?
My mouth predicts your flood, O Amun, my hands your burning rise;
and whose prayers predict the coming rain upon my desert thighs?

Amun brought his gift to me on the skin of my lover;
bestowed by the mouth of the sun after twilight claimed him.
This man of worldly mettle delivered the sky into my hands;
with wine in my heart and gold on my lips I open my soul at your feet.

The Goddess Nuit brings you with her lips when she comes;
west’s mouth opens at twilight where your flashing star rises.
Your luminescence foretells the rising flank of the naked moon;
‘lips of lapis lazuli’ is your name at the moment of his ascension.

Djehuty declares you by the enchantment of his tongue;
you glide from his divine speech as a silver crescent’s boon.
What graces my mouth is the fullness of heaven’s eye;
‘tongue of silver’ is your name when his gleam strikes my lips.

The Goddess Auset binds you to me with her girdle;
she brings at her breast the sanguine knot of sky’s magic.
Seven knots surround your center on her seat of constant ardor;
‘heart of red jasper’ is your name where my breast keeps you.

Ausir the green raises you from his pasture when he comes;
sprouting seed weaves your field as the earth my feet travel.
How you rise by the flood the Good God urges from my loins;
‘thighs of malachite’ is your name as you spring from my hand.

The Goddess Hwt-Her shakes your sycamore of the sky;
with swaying hips she catches you between her western mounds.
My mirror leads lonely eyes up the trail of starry branches;
‘boughs of turquoise’ is your name on the morning heaven sways you.

Amun-Ra brings your cloud of myrrh when he comes;
I inhale the rising sun on my heart’s holy horizon.
The Lord of Thrones has placed you before his tree of myrrh;
‘god-making fragrance’ is your name when your breath leads the sky.

The Goddess Muwt fulfills your soul when her lake swells;
she navigates with the roar of your name by moonlight on her waters.
I am there to drink your zeal as thunder tears the sky;
‘traveler of splendor’ is your name when you sail my lightning skin.

Khonsu-Neferhotep brings your shade when he comes;
an open lotus meets the eyes of the sky by daybreak’s blush.
How the east shares your body with the holy river’s mirror;
‘shadow of the Sun-God’ is your name by dawn and twilight.

The Goddess Sekhmet opens your eyes with her hands of might;
your sky becomes her brow of life where ceaseless flame is kindled.
I tread the horizon where I am led into that sight of power;
‘eye of flame’ is your name when your heart of jasper strikes me.

My beloved is pious when the river floods;
a trail of myrrh following in his footsteps.
Am I a god’s servant then, adhering to those tamarisk feet?
I wait for his boons to rise high on the sacred waters.

My beloved embraces the Gods at the three seasons of the day.
He prays to Amun in the morning; his heart becomes hidden.
He prays to Ptah in the afternoon; his hands absorbed in their labors;
but he prays to Set by night, when his exploits provoke the blazing of stars.

Come with your lamplight to a shrine made ready by the six-day moon;
its myrrh is succor to desert-wearied skin.
This is the royal body of Khensu-Neferhotep, cradled in the lap of stars;
his essence of lotus drawing out prayers from fervent lips.

In the morning your prayers summon the ardor of the Sun-God;
when high noon comes the ears of Ptah imbibe your supplications;
at eventide Set whose passions are roused makes of your tongue His arrow.
My heart becomes the footstool of the Gods, uplifting your unclad toes.

Let the Gods who process the gilt constellations open oracular mouths.
Lord Amun completes His moment when He rises on His mound;
Ptah who is south of His wall encircles the sky as its sunlit master;
Set the raging rules the Red Land with His mighty hand.

Is it your Amun who by morning’s light draws back the dusky veil?
Is it Ptah who opens the lotus on the waters revealing the naked sun?
Is it Set’s fist that governs the bow by which the northern sky is rent?
You answer these with a priest’s devotion as you draw back the bedclothes.

Amun-Ra young bull with sharp horns whose brow knows heaven’s light;
your right eye illumines the earth by day, your left to shine by night.
Adoration of Amun whose skin of gold alights upon His mound;
where darkness clothes the empty waters your hidden light is found.

O Ptah Lord of the Sky whose hearing ear opens south of His walls;
yours are the ears of the midday sun, and those when eventide calls.
May acclaim be yours O beautiful of face who knows the ancient earth;
your two hands move the waters in darkness to give their lotus birth.

Praise of Setesh Lord of Might by whose hand the bow is drawn;
by night who smites the rebel-serpent and with red fist raises dawn.
The Red Land drinks your fury when by storm your voice is known;
the Ark of Ra declares your prowess by twilight where it is shown.

O Gods your footfall knows the shrine of my heart left open to the sky;
whose lapis veil finds me enveloped in myrrh to await the flood.
He comes with full lips immersed in prayer to honor the six-day feast;
whose prophecy declares the filling of the eye high in the lapis vault.

How date palms ride the hot breath of flood season looming at my door;
held open for the passage of gods carried by your devoted mouth.
Stir a breeze for me with praying lips sweet with tamarisk honey;
a flood of their own upon which gods sail during every holy season.

My beloved is pious when his river floods;
he brings three gods with devoted hands.
His body carries the mark of their favors;
boons which multiply as he sheds his royal linen.

My beloved embraces the Gods as the Two Lands know their seasons.
He prays to Amun in the morning; his hidden heart is flooded.
He prays to Ptah in the afternoon; his hands are the leaders of craftsmen;
but he prays to Set by night, when his lover’s deeds fill the Gods with wonder.

I give offerings of the heart to Amun-Ra,
the Lord of Lords of the Holy Throne-Place,
His god-making fragrance performing a
miracle of becoming in the heart of this
City of Amun.

O hail ‘Dominion-Place’ in its sweet life-breath
coming forth from the sacred north.

Homage to You O Amun-Ra, the King of the
Gods and life-giving Lord of humankind,
the substance-maker for all living beings of
this earth and Father of the Fathers of Creation.

O Hidden Illumination, O Amun-Ra.
O hidden and secret power of the First-Occasion.
O Lord of the Hand, summoning the Soul of the
primal waters in darkness and making light-radiance.

Homage to You, Master of the Two Heavens
and Supporter of the Two Light-Plumes
of the void, Possessor of all Shadows circulating
the interior coils of ‘The Provider of Souls’.

Homage to You Ram-Spirit of the Two Earths,
Provider of Spirit to the form of flesh and the
Members of living beings.

Homage to You Bull of Sunrise, appearing over
the Land of Sunrise as the Vivifier of the
Sacred East, the living soul-fire coming into
being as the manifestations of heaven, earth,
and the forms of the splendid creation.

Homage to You King of Kings within the City of Amun.

Homage to You Lord of Lords within the Sanctuary of
Enumerations.

Homage to You Ruler of Rulers within the Sanctuary
of the South.

Homage to You Peace-Maker within the ‘Lake of the
Torch’ in Isheru.

Homage to You Pacifier of the Wrathful-Goddess within
the Sanctuary of the Eye of Ra.

Homage to You Amun, the Maker of Peace Who embraces
Mother Muwt as the Lover of Isheru, the fructifying
Bull of the dark waters of hidden might.

Homage to You Amun-Ra, the Lord of the Thrones of
the Two Lands, Uniter of the Red and Black, the true
Lord of the Black Land Whose command directs the
destiny of all Souls of the Two Banks.

Homage to You O Amun-Ra the Defender of the
oppressed.

Homage to You O Amun-Ra the Savior of the
afflicted.

Homage to You O Amun-Ra the Lord of Mercy,
the Hearer of Prayers as the Hearing-Ear.

Homage to You O Amun-Ra the Master of Diadems
and Wearer of all Heaven’s Ornaments.

Homage to You O Maker of all gods and Creator of
all nations.

Homage to You O Amun-Ra the Establisher of the
Followers of Truth, almighty in His sanctuaries,
crowned with the Two Plumes of Sacred Light as
the sovereign master of the heart’s divine becoming.

I give the offerings of excellence to Amun the Lord
of Perfection in His forthcoming from the Throne
of Dominion in ‘Dominion-Place’.

I make an offering of the god-making fragrance
of frankincense and myrrh to Him, the Lord of
mysterious appearances, Who fructifies maidens
with His holy seed, Who brings the latent god
to fruition according to His wish, Whose desire
comes into being as form and flesh and member.

I perform the torch-lighting ceremony for the
Lord of His Divine Incarnations.

I summon the Holy Soul of the Celestial Ram as
the Maker of life-essence in humankind,
fulfilling the existence of living beings with the
quickening breath in the lungs, the fructifying
power governing the house of creation.

I pour forth the libation of the Sacred flood,
petitioning Celestial Amun to appear from His
Cavern of renewal in the Nuwn.

O Darkness, O Flood!
O Light-Essence, O Amun!

Coming into being as the manifestations of
becoming, the evolution of the evolutions of
the Gods; the First-Flood, the First-Coming of
light in the primordial darkness.

I make an offering of natron the god-making
salt for the benefit of the kas of humankind;
uniting the Soul with the flesh; Amun withAuf-Ra; Earth-Father with Heaven-Mother;Ausir with His Wedjat Eye of restorative
powers; my members of the earth of my mother
with the powers of Amun the Sustainer of
living forms; the Bestower of Spirit to all the
beings of this earth.

I summon almighty Amun to the place of my
initiation to consecrate my flesh as the sacred
house of Your God-Soul.

I am the dweller in this, my flesh of my mother,
dwelling in these, the members of my father;
but I am not this flesh which goes the way of
death.

I am not this death known to all men, feared by
all living beings.

I have opened up the Staircase to Heaven, the
portal of God-Making known unceasingly to those
Ennobled Souls, those Disciples of the Teaching
of Life.

I have opened the Celestial Ladder of the Netjeru,
and my sight is fixed upon the Indestructibles in
heaven.

I am not this body of this earth!
I am united with Your Soul of eternal becoming,
O Amun the Hidden Soul of the Sacred East!

Though I go west when my time of night
approaches, I return in the east in the Company
of Auset-Sepdet (Isis-Sothis);
I return in the east in the Company of Ausir-
Sah (Osiris-Orion); I return in the east in the company ofKhepra-‘Flying Sun’, the Lord expansive of light
on the day of the Summer Solstice!

I traverse the east with You in the morning at the hour
of smiting Apep.

I traverse west with You in the dusk when Your
dazzling countenance makes peace as the Lofty One-
of the Two Great Horizons in the flesh of Atum.

May You give consecration to my flesh, O Amun,
empowering me to accomplish the Ways of Heaven
upon the earth.

May You give divine life to my limbs, O Amun,
empowering me to open the Portal of Heaven
in every place where my two feet tread.

May You give awakening to my Illumination-body,
O Amun, as an abiding soul in the company of the
everlasting Gods.

The discourse of Amun-Ra, the Lord of the Thrones
of the Two Lands, to His disciple in the Mansion
of Truth in ‘Dominion-Place’:

I give to you all life, abiding and dominion beneath
the heavenly vault, the confirmation of my
Entourage of Light of the firmament, the consecration
of your soul as a manifestation of the Sacred Fire,
and a coming into being again as an ennobled soul
in the presence of the Indestructibles!

I receive you in ‘Dominion-Place’ as the firstborn of
the Goddess Waset in my embrace.

I receive you in the Place of Sanctuaries in the
‘Most Select-of Seats’.

I receive you in the Sanctuary of Twin Plumes in
my name of ‘Menu-the Hidden One- Who is the
Bull of His Mother’.

I receive you in the Shrine of the Horizon in my Seat
of Appearances in view of the Lake of the Morning.

I receive you as the Bull, the Husband of the Vulture,
upon the Seat of Isheru in the waters of the Sky-
Mother.

I receive you as my son Khensu-Neferhotep, the
Maker of peace in the egg of darkness within the
Coils of Great Mehen.

I establish you as the Lotus-Born at the moment of
the ‘Filling of the Wedjat-Eye’.

I avert darkness on your behalf, pacifying the wrath
of the Wedjat Eye of Ra and healing your wounds
like the Wedjat Eye upon my vertex.

I consecrate you with the Twin Plumes of dazzling
illumination of the horizons, empowering you to
carry the radiance of heaven to the four corners of
the earth!

Ohow sweet is twilight, that moment of Becoming, when shadows quicken and humankind slumbers, when the fire-orange expanse of Heaven is transformed into scintillating lapis- one moment bright, and the next a blanket of purple blue strewn with flecks of pure gold. Gone is the dazzling turquoise of midday…gone are the swallows darting hither and thither between rustling date palms dappled with the flaxen kiss of Ra. The Sun-God has abandoned His jewel on Earth, and creeping creatures bed down in thickets of papyrus, swaying softly to the serenade of crickets.

The Foremost Sanctuary of Amun casts its spell across a land dominated by stone giants, whose massive bodies bear silent witness to the passage of ages, where priests fumigate the air with myrrh, and sandalwood enchants the hot breezes rushing in from the south. White South, the Kingdom of the Lotus-Lily, the breath of the Eye of Ra, the dangerous and violent temper of the celestial vault’s Great King.

Isheru, O beautiful Isheru! How perfect are your banks, how bold the colors of the sky painted delicately across your lens of pure water. Isheru, in whose reflection the stars in their glory shine. Isheru, where noble Amun becomes the Bull of His Mother, and Khensu-Neferhotep is born! Homage to You, O glorious Isheru, the birthplace of the Lotus-Born, the falcon of crescent and disk, upon whose brow radiates the diadem of Heaven!

Perfect peace, the banks of Isheru the Lake of Profundities. The night sky heaves a sigh of relief as almighty Ra plunges beneath the deep dark waters, and at once all is still. A canopy of stars emerges that can be read like a map. Sah-Orion takes His place above Amun-Ra’s House, where the Ram reclines, enticing the heavenly travelers to pay homage to the King of the Gods. The chanting of priests diminishes, and the crash of a priestesses’ sacred rattle brings the sacred activities of the day to a profound close.

To the South of the Finest Harem of Amun glitters in silver light the crescent-shaped waters of Isheru, which my mind’s eye forms perfectly well even in the utter darkness of night’s thick cover. Fear flutters within my heart, but for a moment, as I enter the Domain of Mother Mut, the Lioness Who has been known to taste of blood and find contentment in rage.

I pour out an offering of fine red beer to You, O fiery Mut, the Lady of Isheru, the Queen of Your Sanctuary in the South! Amun the Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands comes to embrace You, as I come to embrace You…as all living things embrace You! O Mut the lofty of crown and regal of headdress, Whose coronet is the vulture and Whose diadem is the cobra.

Homage to You, Mut the Divine Mother! Homage to You, Mut the Beloved of Amun-Ra! Homage to You, Mut the Queen of the Gods! Homage to You, Mut the Mother of Khensu-Neferhotep! Homage to You, Mut the Eye of Ra! Homage to You, Mut-Bastet, the Great and feared Goddess! Homage to You, Mut the Lioness of the South!

I pour out an offering of the finest red beer in the presence of the Goddess Mut, and before Her two feet I kneel in awe, where fools fear to tread, but wise men come to be reborn through the blood of the Goddess. It is well known that great Amun-Ra, the King of the holiest of holies in Waset, traverses the miles of courtyards and sanctuaries simply to bask in the passionate embrace of the Goddess…even She Whose flaming temper transforms cool water into hot blood…who quickens the pulse and can even stop a heart.

I come to this place of the Navigation, alone and to ponder the meaning of my inner Mysteries, where the Goddess makes Herself known as vulture and lioness, Eye of the Sun and Cobra of the Sun-God’s brow. Her countenance may be terrible, even as is the fear of death, but how lovely to gaze upon Her refined curves, swaying in the moon’s alabaster light and beneath the vault of heaven’s jealous gaze.

Blue-black is the hair of my Goddess, cascading down to Her smooth shoulders in two lappets capped with rosy gold. How beautiful Her gown, woven of gold feathers and enhanced with a girdle of coppery pleats. How shining white is the Southern Crown upon Her head, and beneath it the fan of vulture’s wings and talons, whose lethal grasp firmly holds the gems of Eternity, winking in the pale light of the moon.

Is it a lion’s hot breath I feel upon my face, or the cool brush of a vulture’s wing? Is my Goddess fair or frightening…pleased or passionate…content or ready for war? Behind Her majestic presence I hear the churning of the Lake of Isheru, into whose depths so many men have gazed and been drawn, where kings have offered all that they had…where armies have prayed for victory and priests for prosperity. But the time for simple prayers has come to an end, and my offering provokes its Mistress to come forth and grant Her boons. I have asked for answers, and the Queen of Isheru has opened Her leonine mouth in a manner of answer!

These are the words of Mut the Great, the Mistress of Isheru: Come, O you kings of the Earth, and listen! Come, O you rulers of the North and South, and hear the pronouncements of the Most Ancient One, Who came before you, Who heralded the dawn with Her roars and made great the flood at the time of the First Occasion!

I was with Ra on that day of the splitting open of the Ished Tree in Annu, when the enemies of the Sun-God were torn and Apep severed. I have swallowed darkness, and I have eaten death, and the Primordial Gods feared me in this my name of Mother, Death…Mother, Death. For I alone am your beginning and your end, and within my body do all things that live gain their first beginning, and achieve their last end.

Yet I have drawn forth the infant Sun from my thighs, and I have conceived from a bull and made of Him my Lotus-Born Son. I have taken in Amun, in secret, in the wet lake they call Isheru, and within the crescent flood I give life to the Moon, Whose name has been called Khensu-Neferhotep!

Hush! Hush, O Child of the Secrets, and open your mouth to receive the breast of the Sun, which is hatched from the shell of a beetle and rolled across the vault to be as one with the Ark of Ra. Dutifully the Gods come at my command, for I am the ancient Generatrix, giving the Thrones of the North and South to the Greater and Lesser Companies of the Gods to rule, and it is by my will that such things were ordered as have governed time since the time of the First Occasion.

Come now, my Son, Khensu-Neferhotep, and dip Your lotus body in the waters in which Ra daily bathes…the waters in which Amun brought Himself into being, in which Atum moved His hand over His impassioned body and ejaculated the world. These are the Waters of Renewal, where a boy becomes at last a man, where a husband fathers generations, and where the dead are reborn into everlasting life. These are the waters in which a woman nourishes her child, which embrace a man when he is transformed by the senses, and which drown a seed in order that new life might burst forth!

Know then that all things were born in the depths and return to the depths, deep down into the watery abyss where the Sun had His beginnings. This is the Crescent-Place we call Isheru, which receives the gilded ship of my Becoming on the eve of the New Moon. This is the feast they call the Navigation, but it is nothing less than the navigation of humankind as a child through the womb of its Mother…the sapling’s fragile branches into the body of a great tree…the seed of a man into the lineage of his progeny.

Isheru is the womb where the kernel of potential is urged into fruition, and the process of Creation becomes a distinct reality. It is the bone that contains the marrow, drawn out from the corpses of the dead by vultures and transformed into the nectar of life. For all living things are born from death, and death is the Mother of all life.

Thus am I called Mut…“Mother”…Mut…“death”. O death, my Mother! O death, the becoming of my Ka into the greatness of the Glorified, Whose forms are boundless and Whose lights guide the way for the blind. All sight begins with darkness, into which pierces the light, giving form to form and substance to shape. Its root is darkness…emptiness…what they call the Abyss of chaos.

Go down, my child, into the Waters of the Isheru, and come up again renewed with the knowledge that comes from partaking of the Mysteries. All true knowledge comes from direct experience, and the experience of Immortality is gained through the transformations of birth and death, which are known to the Gods and to all creeping creatures beneath the Sun!

O my Mother Mut, from Whose noble breast I have suckled the wisdom of the Mysteries! Cradle my desire in Your two hands, and make of me Your Lotus-Born child, Whose countenance appears again and again in His name of Khensu-Neferhotep!

In gratitude I bestow the first fruits of the Harvest, the corn and the cornflower, the grain and the beer, the bread and the vine. I waft frankincense to Heaven and shake the Sistrum before Your face, glowing with gold and shining like turquoise.

When at long last I return to the world of the Sun, my feet have been washed clean in the Waters of Renewal, and the words of my Goddess have been inscribed upon my heart. There is no outer explanation of the Mysteries that can dispel their shadows nor express their ageless wisdom. These are held firmly in the vulture’s claws of my Mistress- the One Who is the Mistress of that Crescent-Lake called Isheru.